The beggar from Cologne Cathedral

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Movie
Original title The beggar from Cologne Cathedral
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1927
length 2565 meters, 7 acts, 101 minutes
Rod
Director Rolf Randolf
script Emanuel Alfieri
production Rudolf Meinert
for Internationale Film AG IFA Berlin
music Hans May (original version 1927)
Pierre Oser (version 2009)
camera Willy Hameister
occupation

The Beggar from Cologne Cathedral is the title of a silent film drama that Rolf Randolf wrote in 1927 based on a script by Dr. Emanuel Alfieri was realized in Cologne . It is a detective film with action and adventure elements that comes up with all the tricks and details of this genre: a clever investigator, fraudulent women and lots of chase scenes on land and water, even in a speedboat on the Rhine .

The film has also become a historical document as it was made in old Cologne, which was still intact from the war, and contains original recordings from the Cologne carnival parade in the 1926/27 season.

It was produced by the Internationale Film AG IFA Berlin, producer was Rudolf Meinert . The recording manager was Arthur Bredow. The film structures were designed by Gustav A. Knauer . Willy Hameister was chief cameraman.

action

Interpol agent Tom Wilkins disguised himself as an Indian maharajah at the exclusive Hotel Excelsior to put an end to a gang of thieves disguised as beggars. The very rich American Mabel Strong also stays in the noble hostel within sight of the cathedral. They are targeted by the jewel thieves who have an accomplice in the hotel chauffeur in a central position. Only after boat and car chases and numerous entanglements can the hero save the rich lady from a bomb attack and the nasty robbers.

background

The film was available to the censors on March 13, 1927 and was "approved for viewing in front of adults without excerpts." The first performance took place on February 18, 1927 in Cologne. It premiered in Berlin at the end of March 1927 in the Emelka Palace. “Meinert-Film GmbH. in the IFA group ”. The film was also shown in France ; there it was called “Le mendiant de la cathédrale de Cologne”.

Tom Wilkins was played by the British-born actor Henry Stuart , who, as in other films, is the gentleman and noble lover. The leader of the crooks was the well-known actor Carl de Vogt , who has already participated in important silent film productions such as " Die Spinnen " (Fritz Lang 1919) or " Nathan the Wise " (Manfred Noa 1922) and also as a singer on gramophone records and in Broadcasting appeared. The American Mabel Strong was played by the Hungarian actress Elza Temáry, who also appeared in films such as “Superfluous People” ( Alexander Rasumny 1925) or “ Danger of the Bridal Time ” (Fred Sauer 1929), there alongside Marlene Dietrich .

Since the original cinema music by Hans May from 1927 is considered lost, the Munich composer Pierre Oser was commissioned by ZDF / Arte and WDR Cologne to write a new film music. It was recorded in 2009 by the WDR radio orchestra under the musical direction of Titus Engel.

The film was broadcast on the ARTE cultural channel with the new music version on Monday, January 15, 2010 at 12:20 am.

reception

In contemporary criticism, the film has also received greater attention outside of Cologne. “A solid crime film that uses many effective and proven effects on the screen”, praised “ Der Kinematograph ” and emphasized that “popular names ... were obliged”, including Carl de Vogt, an “excellent mask artist”. The early Cologne thriller was not a milestone in film art, but according to contemporary criticism it was an average entertainment film, "the right food for the large crowd."

"The Beggar from Cologne Cathedral" offers a charming game with the genre, which is ironically ironized in the film with its masked villains and disguised investigators. Nobody is who they claim to be. The seriousness of the baiting of crooks is broken again and again by the appearances of the two funny private detectives, who are used as comic relief based on the American model . They are reminiscent of the investigative duo Schulze and Schultze from Hergé's famous "Tintin" comics.

"A funny couple of detective, who are even more stupid than the police allow, but whose stupidities were acknowledged by the audience with approving laughter" wrote the "Kinematograph" in its 1927 number.

The two comic detectives Müller and Schmitz were played by the Austrian comedian Hermann Blaß and the German actor Carl Geppert.

“But this long-forgotten work lacks a lot - mainly tension. But also in fascinating optics. The Austrian Rolf Randolf (1878–1941) actually wants nothing more than to tell a crime thriller, and does so in an extremely sluggish way. ”.

Republication

“The Beggar from Cologne Cathedral” was released on DVD in 2010 by Stefan Drößler , Martin Koerber and Irene Schoor from the Deutsche Kinemathek; the issue was reviewed in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “The right man for such popular subjects” wrote Der Kinematograph. No. 1071, August 28, 1927, ZDB -ID 575137-8 , p. 20, about Randolf.
  2. ↑ also Albieri, "the writer of the script, who has been very lucky with the production of popular scripts lately," says Der Kinematograph. No. 1071, August 28, 1927, p. 20.
  3. ↑ on the term cf. Detective film. In: Lexicon of film terms. On filmlexikon.uni-kiel.de
  4. ↑ as characterized by ARTE TV
  5. ↑ cf. Frank Olbert in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger on December 22, 2010: “ It is the pre-war Cologne that we are seeing here. No ruins, no fallow land, no cathedral plate that strangles the cathedral - on the contrary, from the “Excelsior Hotel”, one of the central locations of the film, one looks at a cathedral, to whose main entrance a wide flight of stairs leads up. It is a sometimes even stately city that comes across in some scenes of the film, not yet prepared by traffic arteries, even if the automobiles are already rolling through Cologne and the horse and carts are in competition. "
  6. ↑ cf. ibid: “Another show value of the film are the original shots of the Rose Monday procession from 1927. The children who stand by the wayside are mainly costumed - the adults watch the spectacle in serious everyday clothes, the men with wide felt hats on their heads Ladies wrapped in coats. "
  7. ^ Table of contents in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger on February 5, 2010.
  8. ↑ cf. The cinematograph. No. 1048, March 20, 1927.
  9. ↑ cf. IMDb
  10. ↑ The cinematograph. No. 1071, August 28, 1927, p. 20, however, writes: "This actor, who was not very effective for a time, is well on the way to becoming a German Lon Chaney ".
  11. ↑ cf. Vogt, Carl de. In: Der Deutsche Rundfunk - Funkpost (Hrsg.): Artists in the radio. Volume 4: Performers and entertainment orchestra. A paperback dedicated to our readers. New edition. Rothgießer & Diesing, Berlin 1936, p. 72: "Carl de Vogt is not only a splendid singer for the lute, but also a popular speaker for radio plays."
  12. ↑ Born on January 12, 1905 in Germany, career in Germany and France until around 1932, died on February 16, 1968 in Tucson , Arizona, USA, cf. Elza Temáry. On kinotv.com
  13. ↑ Program information from ARD "The beggar from Cologne Cathedral"
  14. ↑ so at koeln-im-film.de
  15. ↑ so on ARTE TV
  16. ↑ cf. Digitized . At koeln-im-film.de
  17. ↑ Blass, born in Vienna, came from a Jewish family in Lvov and emigrated to the annexation of Austria in the United States , see. Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. Acabus-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 3-86282-049-1 , p. 104.
  18. ↑ Geppert played many comic roles in Schwänken and operettas, from around 1919 also in films, cf. Th. Staedteli: Carl Geppert. at cyranos.ch and The beggar from Cologne Cathedral in the Internet Movie Database (English) .
  19. ↑ Marco: Review. On molodezhnaja.ch
  20. ↑ The Beggar from Cologne Cathedral Edition Filmmuseum No. 52, accessed on September 18, 2018.
  21. ↑ Frank Olbert: No ruins, no fallow land, no concrete Kölner Stadtanzeiger from December 22, 2010, accessed on September 18, 2018.